I had the opportunity to play a full game at Gen Con, as well as teaching a full game a separate time, and those two games have given me enough to give a mini-review here.

To put it simply, I think this game is going to deliver on the expecations we have for it. I found it to be great mix of all four of the 4x elements.

1) The follow mechanic

Like all RR games, actions are tight, and the actions selection here makes for very tough choices about what to do and when. Do you spend extra command to do what you really want to or wait until you are the commander and get to choose the action? Or do you refresh so that you can follow with what you want when you want?

The mechanism also keeps downtime low and everyone involved, since everyone is watching the current commander to see what they are going to call out, and none of the actions take very long to complete.

2) Diversity of strategies (multiple paths to victory

Do you want to focus on battles? Ally with a planet with good units, recruit them, research a good combat technology or two, and go to town.

Do you want to focus on diplomacy and exploring? Travel around fulfilling deliveries and missions to gain lots of influence on different planets.

Do you want to build an engine based on powerful buildings and technologies? Travel around collecting goods, use the trade ship, and make all your actions more efficient. There are some great choices in the buildings and technologies. For instance, it's tough to decide whether to increase your income, your hand size, or your command first.

All of the above paths yield victory points in their own way and none have to be specialized in.

3) The production is stunning

Everything looks even more gorgeous in person. The colorful and translucent influence and control markers, as well as the commander and action markers, really add to the look. The art is Laukat's best yet, in my opinion, with unique pictures on all the cards, planets, etc.

The rule book not only looks amazing but is the most thorough I've seen from RR in terms of covering corner cases. There's also the usual enormous amount of gorgeous chits and other components to mark absolutely everything. The money is particularly beautiful and satisfying to hold. If you haven't already, read the latest Kickstarter update to see some of the new final art and components:

In addition to the art, the races, the events, the action/mission/delivery cards, the varied exploration tokens, the allies and their ally powers, - everything pulls you into the theme, while still playing a balanced, eurostyle game.

5) Interaction level is perfect

The game is extremely interactive, from the follow mechanic, to competing to have the most influence on worlds to frequent battles to control them. And yet the game never feels too mean or punishing. By making combat only have you retreat instead of eliminate units, it prevents one player from steamrolling and actually makes you more willing to engage in combat because you aren't afraid of losses. And having the winner lose a card also prevents steamrolling.

I thought the combat might be too nice and that the board would just fill up with units. But the game doesn't last long enough to have too many units there, and there are so many things you want to do that it's hard to get the time and money to recruit too much.

6) The game is just the right length

The game does not drag, and has a nice arc. With four experienced players, this is probably a two hour game, or maybe even a bit shorter for a fast group. The arc builds to midgame scoring (another interesting choice), and then battles come fast and furious in the second half as folks attempt to control worlds for final scoring.

I love how the endgame conditions being met still leaves a bunch of turns to play out - the one thing I dislike about a game like Scythe is how the game ends suddenly. There is plenty of time here to make a last play for what is important to you.

7) The replayability seems to be there

From the different viable strategies, to the five different events for each planet, to the extra planets you won't use every game, to the tons of different diplomacy cards, to the modular planet starting locations and variable player start locations, to all the different exploration tokens, and the different technologies for each race, there's a ton of stuff that will play out differently each game.

Conclusion

You may have noticed that I like this game! The edged out Rising Sun for my favorite of the dozen or so games I played at Gen Con. While I'm an admitted RR fanboy, the game still surpassed expectations. Ryan Laukat has succeeded in the midweigh euro niche. While this is my favorite genre, I always wanted RR to put out a game which felt a bit more epic. This game does this while still keeping to a reasonable play time.

About the only negative thing I can say about this game is how long we're going to have to wait to see it released!